In theory, you couldn’t ask for two more disparate bike brands than KTM and Harley-Davidson. Sure, both are revered two-wheeled icons in their respective countries, both have endured their own version of
Black Friday-like economic meltdowns, and, happily,
both came roaring back to heightened levels of financial security and market domination that few would’ve
ever foreseen. But where the former is all about performance and racing, the latter (despite an early racing
heritage) is best known for style and recreation. KTM
was born in Austria in 1953. Harley is over a century old
and is as American as apple pie.

So, what could possibly be a uniting factor between
them, you ask? In the last year, no other motorcycle
brand has released as polished and ready-for-prime-time-looking e-bikes as these two companies. Both
the KTM Freeride and Harley-Davidson Live Wire have
proven to be exceptional examples of engineering and
manufacturing prowess. And yet, between the two of
them, there’s hardly a shred of evidence that either will
ever see the light of an actual production line.

Of course, unlike Harley-Davidson, who barely
even acknowledged the questions we had regarding
their black beauty, to KTM’s credit, every time we’ve
asked about the when and where regarding their battery-powered bike, they just seem to be searching for
the right answer. And while some very knowledgeable
throttle-twisting insiders told us that the entire basis
for the Harley (built for them by Mission Motors in San
Francisco) was purely a marketing exercise designed
to drive up their stock value, for KTM, their e-bike production plans simply seem like too high of hanging fruit
on a tree already burdened with one of the widest and
most successful arrays of exotic, gas-powered street
and dirt bikes.

KTM now has a family ofe-bikes, but where andwhen they’ll be releasedstill remains a question